Over the past few months, the digital marketing arena has witnessed a range of moves and countermoves, which point to a change in strategies of the leading digital marketing channels (like Google, Facebook and Groupon). Surprisingly, most of the news coming in from these companies seems to be focussed on refinement of their products, rather than the development of new digital marketing products. This is a good signal, and gives us confidence that the companies wish to enhance user experience and offer better value to advertisers and customers, alike.
One big technology company that has seen plenty of recent activity is Apple. Apple devices generate a lot of digital marketing traffic through their apps and browsers. This year, a large number of interesting applications for Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices were launched, such as Siri (the trendy voice-recognition software). It was noticed that a large number of Apple’s apps were powered by services of other technology majors, such as Google Maps, Yelp and YellowPages.com, rather than by an Apple product.
However, in March 2011, Apple made a patent application, that may end up being a game changer in the digital marketing arena. According to the US Patent filed, the devices made by Apple rank search results corresponding to locations, and recommend locations based on how many users visited a previously suggested location. It also said that data regarding user visits can be recorded and anonymously reported through the hand-held devices they are carrying. Below is a short extract from the US Patent that was filed.
“A handheld communication device, which is carried by a user, can report to the system the user’s present location optionally associated with a time stamp. The handheld communication device can report either a single location coordinate or a collection of coordinates gathered over time”.
Simply put, this technology can offer customers a range of different facilities, such as automatic check-ins, driving instructions, local promotional offers and directory services.
One question that digital marketing experts are often asked is ‘how to ensure that a brand gets a head start in the ‘next big thing’? Well, the online environment has two parts; evolution and innovation. Both these sections need to be tackled through different approaches. Targeting innovations means investing resources for trying out new concepts/products yourself, while targeting evolution means investing resources on the large technology companies as they begin to develop new digital marketing products, which they think consumers will need.
Qudos Digital is a leading digital marketing consultancy, and can be contacted on 0845 388 5583 or info@qudosdigital.co.uk.
